The St. Louis Cardinals could really use a little Jaime Garcia right now.

After bumbling through the past week, the Cardinals have been victimized by its own pitching staff, losing four in a row and eight of 10. Garcia has been the team’s only bright spot on the mound, and returns to the mound against the San Diego Padres, a team who he’s dominated in the past.

All these things together make St. Louis an easy 1 1/2-run favorite in Cardinals vs. Padres Betting Lines Monday night.

The Cardinals blew their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, a team they were initially competiting with for the NL’s best record. They led by two runs in the seventh inning on Sunday until Scott Van Slyke’s three-run bomb took the lead for good. Now, St. Louis’ lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central is just a half game.

“We have a good team and we know we can do it,” shortstop Rafael Furcal told the Associated Press. “Right now, everybody’s struggling, but we’ve got to be positive and keep working.”

The loss on Sunday was the ninth time in their last 10 games in which they surrendered six runs or more.

The lone exception was Garcia’s start last Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants, surrendering just one run and striking out a career-high nine batters in 7 1/3 innings.

His recent history against the Padres is even better. Garcia has only allowed seven hits and no runs in his last two starts against San Diego, which could actually be more attributed to the Padres’ lack of offense in general. Last in the NL West, the Padres have fewer homers (16) than anyone and are averaging the second-fewest runs in baseball. They’ve scored nine runs in their last four games total.